BioIQ’s approach to quality gap closure starts with understanding health plan members as people and consumers, activating them with personalized communication and offering them a more convenient care experience. One way that BioIQ meets care gap closure objectives is through the delivery of at-home testing kits to health plan members. The company recently reached a major milestone on its journey to positively impact 100 million lives by conducting its one millionth colorectal cancer (CRC) screening.
Over the course of providing one million members with personalized and convenient CRC screenings in the comfort of their own home, BioIQ learned valuable lessons in the art of effective member engagement. Here are ten of those takeaways.
1. People who are not up to date with colorectal cancer screening are not “bad” patients
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one-third of adults in the U.S. have not been screened for colorectal cancer as recommended. However, these individuals should not be written off as “difficult” or “noncompliant” patients; they just need to be offered an alternative to colonoscopy.
While there are multiple screening options available, the best test is the one that gets done. Fecal immunochemical testing, or FIT tests, are inexpensive, accurate and noninvasive. They can be completed in the privacy of the home and don’t require bowel prep. Additionally, the kits can be sent in the mail or distributed at a screening event, making it easy to reach people that may not otherwise have access to other types of CRC screening. BioIQ has facilitated over a million FIT tests, saving thousands of lives through early detection.
2. Healthcare consumers are evolving
Healthcare consumer habits, expectations and attitudes are changing. Ten years ago, the average person didn’t know much about colorectal cancer and was likely to write the test off as invasive and embarrassing. Today, the importance of CRC screening is front and center for healthcare consumers thanks to a decade of public health education, celebrity-endorsed awareness campaigns and ongoing efforts by health plans as a result of Star Ratings measures related to the initiative.
3. Don’t underestimate the impact of convenience and access
Despite being a challenging population to engage and manage, home testing has proven to be an effective approach to achieving clinical adherence and improving outcomes in Medicaid populations. Delivering a CRC test directly to someone’s home removes barriers to care by eliminating the need to secure transportation to a doctor’s office or spend time sitting in a waiting room.
BioIQ has helped health plans reach thousands of difficult-to-engage members, providing them with simple, at-home tests for colorectal cancer as well as other conditions such as diabetes and chronic kidney disease. In general, BioIQ found that the ease of the test is a good predictor of member follow-through and program success.
4. Communicate with members on their terms to avoid engagement fatigue
People are bombarded with messages every day—emails, phone calls and text messages—all competing for their time and attention. Experience has taught the BioIQ team that effective communications—those that break through the noise and motivate a member to take action—tap into an individual’s preferred method of communicating.
Understanding member preferences starts with segmenting a population based on demographic and psychographic data to tailor each message and maximize response. BioIQ leverages advanced analytics and omnichannel communications to personalize each individual’s experience and deliver the right message at the right time through email, IVR, live calls, SMS and email.
When it comes to the actual message, launching thousands of engagement campaigns has taught our team the importance of keeping language easy to understand and clearly stating actionable next steps.
5. Make testing tangible for members
Throughout this journey, BioIQ has learned how at-home CRC screening—a simple, yet highly tangible solution—can completely change (and improve) a member’s perception of their health plan. For most healthcare consumers, they tend to think of directories and EOBs when they imagine their relationship with their health plan.
Providing people with a simple, private way to access this life-saving care gives health plans a unique opportunity to shift the narrative and show their members that the plan cares about their health and wants to make member lives a bit easier.
6. Constantly look for ways to improve
BioIQ made great strides when launching the company’s CRC solution by streamlining and automating physician ordering, kit shipment and reporting. Next, we evolved and expanded workflows within health plan populations.
To continue the momentum and meet clients’ evolving needs, BioIQ took another leap by integrating omni-channel engagement and consumer analytics into offerings. This maximizes results in health plan campaigns and produces data-driven insights, which improves program design year over year and reaches more people.
7. Proper clinical follow-up is key to improving outcomes
Over the course of screening a million members for colorectal cancer, BioIQ has learned the importance of having a well-coordinated and clearly defined pathway to follow up with a member on a positive test result.
With something as sensitive and important as a cancer screening, people should not learn about a positive result via email. Instead, we treat these members as we would treat out own family, by having a live agent call and deliver the news, walk them through the results and navigate the next steps—connecting with their provider.
8. Meet members where they shop, live and work
While consumerism is still a relatively new concept in healthcare, the more we can meet people where they are through offerings such as retail and home screenings, the more we’ll be able to drive positive, substantial change.
Health plans should understand the propensity of their members to perform at-home tests and screenings, their likelihood to visit their PCP and how often they rely on their local retail pharmacy to provide point-of-care services. That knowledge empowers plans to expand and communicate offerings that appeal to their members.
BioIQ’s relationship with a leading retailer offers thousands of locations for members to receive a host of health services, from tests for diabetes to vaccinations. The company’s at-home laboratory testing programs have helped millions of people perform simple tests like colorectal cancer screenings and A1c tests in the comfort of their own home.
9. Don’t overlook social determinants of health
Research suggests that social determinants of health (SDOH)—conditions in the places people live, learn, work and play— have a tremendous impact on patient outcomes. Visibility into the SDOH risk factors patients face is critical to understanding the barriers that may contribute to gaps in care. Plans may need to extend additional services to help members complete a next step in their care journey.
Armed with insight into member SDOH obstacles, health plans can build new avenues to help members circumnavigate these obstacles. BioIQ helps health plans adopt and operationalize this important data to support member engagement programs that are designed to clearly address known SDOH challenges for various at-risk members.
10. Non-traditional offerings will continue to disrupt legacy deployment models
Easy-to-use digital health solutions and new reimbursement rules have motivated providers and consumers to adopt connected devices, wearables and other technologies to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
Health management apps and care site alternatives such as retail clinics, home health visits and additional direct-to-consumer offerings introduce opportunities to bring member engagement beyond the traditional care setting. Working with a curated network of partner solutions, BioIQ is uniquely positioned to help health plans navigate the consumerization and retailization of healthcare.
Whether you’re launching a CRC, A1C or kidney disease gap closure campaign, BioIQ can help your plan scale preventive health testing programs and improve member outcomes.